Hey! Time for another chapter. This one ranks as one of my ultimate favorites because it was so much fun to write. I hope you all enjoy, because I know I did!
Personal Thank Yous
VIXXY VAMPIRE: Glad you liked that chapter! I hope you like the rest of them and continue to read and review and feed my ego. :)
emXatXtheXdisco: Don't you worry, I will keep right on writing since I love this story as well. Thanks for taking the time to review - it really keeps the fire going!
miserychick-17: I love Husky as well, I think he's a fantastic wrestler with a lot of potential to be either a great face or a great heel. Thanks so much for reviewing and feeding the monster!
And to hc2010, Khati, SBMFanatic, Twistergirl14, and Miz Orton, thank you SO much for following the story and adding it to story alert and author alert. You guys all warm the cockles of my heart and I couldn't possibly be happier having people to read my things. :)
Noon the day after Heidi's meltdown found the Hellcat still in bed with the covers pulled up over her head. She was hiding, of course, from the world, but also from the sunshine that was quickly making the room warm and uncomfortable. Lily had pulled back the heavy curtains right before she left for a seminar that she was teaching on broadcast journalism, hoping that the glaring sun would rouse her morose friend from her pit of despair.
However, as Lily opened the door and tucked the key back into her purse, she sighed in defeat. There, on the cot that Lily had requested since the WWE still didn't know that Heidi was staying with their newest and most attractive commentator, was Heidi. It looked as if she hadn't moved much since Lily last saw her, all those hours ago, and the tall brunette shook her head as she let the door shut behind her.
Time for a less subtle approach.
Setting down her white leather purse on the neatly made bed, Lily walked around and stood in front of the cot. The lump that was Heidi moved just a little, but it was enough for Lily to suspect that she was awake underneath there and purposely avoiding her.
Lily grabbed the blue blanket and ripped it off of Heidi's body, an action to which she replied by curling into a tighter ball in the fetal position and grimacing at the sudden sunlight.
"Come on, get up," Lily urged in a casual voice as she started to fold the blanket in half, looking much like a housekeeper playing dress-up with the mistress's clothes since she was dressed in a cream colored power-suit.
Heidi groaned and curled up even smaller.
"No."
Sighing, Lily shook her head and opened the suitcase that Heidi had brought from home, which was full to the brim with new clothes that Lily had purchased for her. Almost mother-like, Lily began to pull out garments from the bag and arranged them flat on the bed, like she was preparing for the world's largest paper doll.
Heidi groaned again and rolled over, turning her back to her older, wiser friend.
"I'm not getting out of bed today so you can forget it," she mumbled irritably.
Lily merely snickered at her friend's foul mood. She was always this way in the morning, grumpy and unpleasant, but Lily was used to it after so many sleepovers and just tutted at her cot-ridden pal.
The sunlight was now directly in Heidi's eyes so she threw her arm over her face, nestling her eyes and nose into the crook of her elbow to blot out the glare. Lily was crazy if she thought the she was going to get out of bed and face the world today. Didn't she deserve a day to mourn before she had to put on her big-girl pants again and face reality? The article, which should have been the worst of it, was eclipsed by the unfriendly scuffle with Husky and Heidi was feeling less than motivated.
Lily, who simply chuckled to herself at Heidi's behavior, returned from the bathroom with a glass of water in her hands. Standing over Heidi's cot she nudged her gingerly with the point of her cherry-red pumps.
"Heidi, you've got 10 seconds to start looking alive or I'll be forced to splash you," she warned, dipping her fingers into the water and flicking them at Heidi's hidden face to let the girl know she was serious.
Another grunt sounded and Heidi smacked her lips as she tried to wet her mouth, which had become dry.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven..."
"Come on, just leave me alone today, PLEASE. I'm not going to the gym until the evening so I'm staying here until then!"
Even though Heidi could not see her, Lily shook her head.
"I'm sorry Heidi, I can't do that. You have an appointment today. Six, five, four, three – you know if you don't get up you're going to get soaked...!"
Heidi grumbled and called Lily on her bluff, impishly snuggling into her cot more, wiggling to find the most comfortable spot.
"Two,one," Lily finished hurriedly. Then, just as she foretold, Lily overturned the glass of water and sent the contents splashing down upon Heidi's covered face.
Spluttering, Heidi shook her head from side to side like a dog that had just emerged from a pool. Sitting up so that the water didn't run up her nose, Heidi wiped her hands over her face and coughed. Her face was carved out of irritable stone and she shot Lily a glare that would have crumpled lesser women.
Hiding the smile on her face by turning around, Lily vanished into the bathroom and then came back carrying a white, fluffy towel. She draped it neatly over Heidi's shoulder and patted her friend on her wet, blonde head.
"Now get dressed, you and I have an important engagement that is already paid for and cannot be broken."
Heidi looked up at her as she tousled her hair dry and dabbed the towel over her face and chest. She didn't look particularly excited about the news but her respect for her friend overrode her desire to smack her in the mouth. Begrudgingly, Heidi got to her feet and started to dress, pulling on a pair of bermuda shorts and a short-sleeved green plaid button-up.
"So where are we going?" Heidi asked after she brushed her teeth, wiping her hand over her mouth to clear any lingering traces of white, messy fluoride.
Lily, who was wielding a hair brush behind Heidi, just smiled and pushed on Heidi's shoulders so that she sat on the lidded toilet.
"You and I are going to have a fun day. I made arrangements first thing this morning for the two of us to check into a spa for the day," Lily explained as she brushed her friend's hair quickly but with great care. Given the state of her hair today which was styled in an elaborate twist pinned with a golden feather clip, Lily was clearly the authority on hair and was not about to let Heidi out of the bathroom until she'd done something fantastic with it.
"A spa? You've got to be kidding me! I should be practicing and ordering my blonde 'lover' around," she spat hotly, looking to the trashcan where the shredded tatters of the offending newspaper still lay like confetti.
"Honey, even John Cena takes a day off. Don't worry about it, I promise you'll enjoy yourself and it will be good for your body to unwind." Lily assured as she started to French braid Heidi's wavy blonde locks.
Heidi sighed and leaned on the bathroom counter with her elbow, her chin in her hand as she sat and waited for Lily to be finished. Lily did make a good point, it would be time well spent to get her mind off yesterday, but Heidi wasn't sure that a day alone soaking in mud with some upscale bimbo rubbing her feet was what she needed.
However, as Lily was tying off the end of Heidi's thick blonde plait, the girls' eyes met in the mirror and they forced smiles out of each other; the first Heidi had cracked since Husky had essentially told her that they were no longer family.
"All right, all right, you've convinced me," she forfeited with a stubborn grin.
"Ooooh, great!" Lily said, clapping a little and throwing her arms around Heidi in a brief but meaningful hug.
A few moments later they were piled into Lily's shiny green sedan and were trundling down the road of downtown Phoenix, passing palm trees and cacti as Lily took them to the spa. Lily had given Heidi control of the music so they were currently listening to a metal band that Lily secretly hoped would stop playing. But, if this was what it took to get Heidi out of her slump then Lily would suffer in silence, though she gripped the steering wheel tightly every time she heard the vocalist scream.
Heidi was quiet but glad that Lily had forced her to get out of bed. She felt a little better already, though every time she remembered Husky she felt her stomach twist into painful knots as she relived the feeling of betrayal over again.
Staring out the window as Phoenix passed her by, Heidi wondered where this spa was. They kept winding deeper and deeper into downtown until finally Lily parked the car in a garage and turned off the engine.
"Its across the street," she informed as she grabbed her purse and climbed out of the car. Heidi followed suit and walked around the back of the gleaming green car to stand next to Lily, who towered over her on an ordinary day, but in her cherry-red heels, Lily was positively in another layer of the stratosphere.
Lily led the way out of the garage, Heidi keeping up with quick strides. They looked like an odd pairing for certain, one of them dressed in country chic while the other was clearly a business woman, but the two had ever been polarities of each other, and just what the other needed.
As Lily started walking towards a building with a huge red sign that read "LUCKY STRIKE," Heidi paused and looked up at it. This was most definitely not a spa...
"A bowling alley?" Heidi asked, her smile returning as she and Lily walked up to the doors. Cupping her hands around her eyes, Heidi peered into the black glass door and bounced from foot to foot in her excitement. "You mean we're not going to the spa?"
Lily laughed and opened the door.
"Of course not, don't you think I know you better than that?" she asked with mock hurt as she held open the door for Heidi.
Once inside, Heidi threw her arms around Lily's middle and hugged her tightly.
"Thanks."
As Lily went to check them in, Heidi looked around the place with a sense of awe that was all too apparent on her honest face. The place was dimly lit and swanky, like the club of bowling alleys with red and blue themed lightning all around. Underfoot the carpet was decorated with red and blue lines that mimicked the racing lights along the walls.
A string of women exited a restaurant to Heidi's left, all dressed as if they had just fallen out of a Playboy centerfold. Their dresses were short and shiny and their heels were at least six inches tall. Heidi shook her head in total confusion. How a person could keep their center of gravity while balancing on stilts was beyond her.
As Lily came back from the counter, she too took a look around and chuckled a little uncomfortably. She hadn't known that upscale bowling alleys existed, but she didn't want to bring up the matter so she ignored it and patted Heidi on the back. Handing Heidi her pair of size 7 bowling shoes, Lily grinned sheepishly, knowing that the both of them had just been thrown for a loop as they watched the gaggle of giggling bimbos follow each other like a line of ducks into the restroom.
Lily and Heidi exchanged looks and then the two of them broke into loud and rapturous laughter that caught the attention of more than a few passersby.
"Did you see the one on the end?" Heidi asked, wiping a tear from her eyes as she imitated the straggling blonde, shuffling like a gimping giraffe with her hands pulled up by her chest in a rather close mockery.
Lily nodded and walked them to their lane, setting down her white leather purse.
"I knew there was a dress code but I thought that was to keep riffraff out, not to let strippers in!" she jested in good spirits, glad to see Heidi starting to loosen up a bit and see the smile she had missed while Heidi had been in mourning.
Heidi kicked off her fancy flip flops and yanked on the pair of socks Lily had brought for her, extracting them from her purse.
"So is that why you picked out my clothes this morning?" she asked slyly, looking over to Lily, who was neatly tying up the laces of her bowling shoes.
Lily blushed and smiled.
"Well I didn't want clothes to be an issue on our day off together!" Lily explained reasonably as she stood up and brushed her pants off. Heidi shoved her feet into the shoes without bothering to unlace them and was standing in no time, a snicker on her lips as she regarded Lily's attire.
"A pantsuit and bowling shoes... are you sure there's a dress code?" she asked cheekily.
"Oh shut up, you," Lily replied, smacking her younger pal on the arm.
Heidi sat down at the screen to key in their names, pushing the same button a number of times as a variety of screens passed by her. She denied the offer for a complimentary beverage from the bar, the chance to enter a drawing for a new Prius, and seemingly countless other screens as she pushed "NEXT" over and over again. Finally, the familiar bowling screen came up on the overhead television and she began to type in their names.
"What do you want me to put in here for you?" she asked, looking over her shoulder as Lily poured herself a glass of sparkling water that was in a clear glass pitcher at their table.
"Hmm?" she asked, looking up at the enquiry. "Oh, Lily is fine."
"Right, 'Lady Godiva it is," Heidi chirped, keying in the letters as she spoke until she pressed enter.
Lily's mouth dropped for a moment and she put her hand on her hip in a jokingly indignant fashion.
"I'll have you know I never rode a horse naked through the streets!"
Heidi snorted.
"With your hair, it wouldn't matter!"
The screen above was showing H-E-L-L-C-A when, from behind them, a man spoke up, standing on the stairs that led down to the bowling area.
"It cannot a-be! Look, look, it is the kitty cat girl!"
Standing there, with his tag-team partner, Vladimir Kozlov, was Santino Marella. Both men were dressed sharply in black button-up silk shirts and pressed black slacks, with Santino in front wearing a smile almost as striking as his uni-brow. Kozlov, who towered stoically from behind, looked at Heidi with a flat expression. His brooding eyes on her made her feel rather like an ant being glared at by a vulture.
"Look, look, look, look, its really her, Kozlov!" Santino chirped, hitting his partner's stomach with the back of his hand as he strutted excitedly forward, passing Lily without a glance to stand perilously close to Heidi. He obviously had no concept of personal space.
Heidi leaned away from him as he approached her, but quickly recognized who it was and loosed her stance a bit, though his mug in her face was less than appreciated.
"This amazing!" he said, standing up straight once again and beaming down to Heidi with a wide smile cutting across his permanent 5 o'clock shadow. "What you thinks, Kozlov?" he asked with his hands on his hips in a dramatic gesture that fit him perfectly, looking like a flamboyant Roman statue.
Vladimir Kozlov stepped forward from the lush carpet to the hardwood floor of the bowling area and looked from Santino to Heidi to Lily, and then back to his tag-team partner.
"I think ve bowl now," he replied in his deep baritone, painted thick with his Russian accent. He then selected the heaviest ball from the rack and placed it on the ball return that Heidi and Lily had been preparing to use.
Heidi spoke up.
"Hey, its nice to meet you and all but this is our lane and we didn't invite you to play," she pointed at with great pluck after she finished entering her name so that Hellcat and Lady Godiva were a team.
Kozlov ignored the protest and simply looked to Santino as he started to wipe his bowling ball down with a white rag that he pulled from his breast pocket.
Lily, who always thought it was amusing when Heidi put the wrestlers in their place, stifled a snort poorly and placed a pink ball into the ball return. Santino, however, was upset at the notion and motioned animatedly to the lane they were apparently all four going to share.
"I check for game time, they say the party is already here. I come here and see the kitty-cat and her pretty friend!" he said, waggling his eyebrow at Lily as he mentioned her beauty.
Heidi slammed her fist on the keypad so that the next person's name read "SZSAD" but was bumped over as Santino plopped next to her and started keying in his and Kozlov's names.
"Get off! This is supposed to be Lily and mine's lane!" Heidi protested, pushing against Santino's bulk to try and shove him off of the bench and onto his duff. However, the Italian, while silly, was still quite a boulder of a man and simply swatted idly at the kitty-cat's attempts to move him as he finished making the teams.
"There we goes! Tag-team against the kitty-cat and her pretty friend," he said, standing up to select his ball.
Lily let out a peal of laughter at the harrowing look Heidi fixed upon Santino's back while the obnoxious European squatted and started picking up each ball to see how they felt in his hands.
"Heidi, its all right, there must have been a mistake. I didn't think anyone else would be here so I just put us down as WWE because I wanted them to think we were big shots and get us lanes immediately... Santino and Kozlov must have thought the same thing. Its all a funny coincidence, if you think about it," she encouraged kindly, trying to keep Heidi from getting angry, a more exhausting task than the two grown men knew.
Having selected a bright kelly green ball, Santino put it in the return and then sat back down next to Heidi, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for an unexpected and crushing hug.
"Kitty-cat..."
"DON'T CALL ME KITTY-CAT EVER, EVER AGAIN, GOT IT?"
Santino's eyes went wide at the explosion and he blinked a few times before taking a breath and pulling his hand back from around Heidi's shoulder.
"All right, all right!" he conceded with his hands held up. He looked to see what she had used as her name and then looked back to her with a more compliant smile. "Hellcat, ladies first," he said, gesturing to the lane.
As Heidi picked out her ball, Santino pillowed his arm along the back of the bench and looked over his shoulder at Lily and Kozlov, who were sitting next to each other in silence. Holding his hand next to his mouth to try and keep his lips from being read, he whispered obviously to Kozlov: "Kitty-cat has fire, no?"
Kozlov looked up at his partner and cleared his throat after studying him for a moment.
"Probably vy they call her Hellcat."
Returning with a flaming red ball, Heidi waited for the machine to ready her pins, and then sent her first attempt down the lane. Being a poor bowler had never bothered Heidi, though she was glad that Lily hadn't asked for bumpers, even if they did improve her game. The first shot knocked over only the outermost pin on one side, and her attempt after that landed in the gutter halfway down the lane.
Santino tutted and shook his head as Heidi took her seat next to him, refusing to let him overtake her throne. She bumped him with her butt this time, forcing him to make room, an act to which he laughed and shook his head.
"I see you not so good at pin-ball," he said with a sorrowful tone, shaking his head as if he'd just learned she hated the Pope.
Heidi couldn't help but smirk and roll her eyes.
"Its called 'bowling,' Santino. Bowling," she articulated slowly, looking over and up at her Italian opponent's friendly face.
"What you mean? You have ball, you have pins, pin-ball, it makes a-perfects sense!"
Lily was up next and took her stance a little to the right of center, holding the pink ball in front of her like a champion. Then, with the grace that you'd expect from her, Lily sent the pink ball shooting down the lane in a perfect arc that smashed against the pins and knocked every last one of them down.
Wooting, Heidi pumped her fist in a circle in the air.
"Wahoo! On fire already, Lady Godiva!" she cheered as the strike showed up as an animated cartoon on the screen before showing the scores.
Santino looked shocked at the outward display of skill, glancing to Kozlov, who appeared, as usual, unfazed.
Smiling as she waited, Lily grabbed the other pink ball she had prepared for herself and took her stance again, like a monk centering his chi before he could receive enlightenment. Then she sent the ball down the aisle, knocking over the pins in another strike.
Heidi clapped this time, bumping Santino purposely with her bum as the screen boasted their score.
The Italian looked over at his young, blonde, American challenger, and nodded his head.
"I enjoy your spunk, Hellcat. But watch and learn how Santino plays pin-ball!" he said, walking theatrically with his ball to stand in the center lane. He too posed before he bowled, a ridiculous pose that made both Heidi and Lily start to laugh.
Santino turned around as the girls laughed at him and motioned to Kozlov.
"Partner? Ello? A little support here," he said before turning around and taking a deep breath, holding the ball like it was crystal and would divine the future.
Vladimir looked first to Lily, who was right next to him, startling her like a rabbit as he just stared for a moment. She was dwarfed by the Russian's immensity and looked up at him, her eyes like a deer in headlights. He then looked to Heidi, who was laughing still, clutching her sides as she watched Santino's silly posture as he sent his kelly green ball shooting right down the gutter.
"Ve haff funny partners," he commented at long last as he watched Heidi and Santino in front, playfully bickering about who was more terrible at "pin-ball." It was true, he and Lily had more in common than it seemed upon first glance. For Kozlov, Santino was a front man, a mouthpiece and comic to counter his grave personality. For Lily, Heidi was a gust of wind to mess up her perfect hair. Both of them felt like babysitters sometimes, a feeling validated as Santino pulled Heidi into a headlock and gave her a grinning noogie.
Lily smiled and chuckled, relaxing around the Russian man of few words. There was something both comforting and startling about him, but she found him to be quite harmless.
"You said it, Kozlov," she admitted with a smile, watching as Santino pinched Heidi's nose and then was slapped across the face. Both of the babysitters laughed, especially as the theatrical Italian held his hand to his cheek and scooted over the amount of space that Heidi apparently required of him.
Kozlov was up next, and, with his deadly stare, he sent his blue ball spinning down the lane to knock over half of the pins, which he cleaned up in his next try to earn a spare.
By the time the first game was over, the four of them were acting like old friends. The score was in Lily's favor since she bowled a strike more often than not, but as they sat around the table together, Heidi and Santino across from Lily and Kozlov, no one was paying attention to the score.
Between them was a spread of food that looked entirely too fancy to belong to a bowling alley, but then again, no ordinary bowling alley required a dress code. There was a pitcher of beer for the Tag-Team Champions and a pitcher of limeade for Heidi and Lily, around which two towering plates of nachos sat, being split four ways with no one caring who grabbed from what plate.
Santino rested his arm around the back of Heidi's chair and rubbed his stomach in satisfaction.
"So Hellcat, have you seen latest newspaper article about you?" he asked innocently, unaware that the subject had probably not be broached. He yelped as Lily kicked him under the table and crumpled a little at her stern look that begged him to think before he opened his mouth and stuck his foot right inside.
Heidi, however, was apparently over her slump and nodded her head as she chewed on a mouthful of delicious nachos.
"Yeah," she said finally, wiping her fingers on the napkin provided. "You don't believe any of it though, do you?" she asked calmly, though Lily could detect a tone of anxiety as she waited for the answer. Heidi had been hoping that the readers wouldn't believe the garbage that Percy had penned but she was so new that there was little to deter them from the lies.
Santino shook his head, and Kozlov simply furrowed his brow to indicate that he wasn't a believer either.
"No Hellcat. No-von could crush Jack like dat and loff him," Kozlov replied to a stunned table, uttering the longest sentence Heidi and Lily had ever heard from him. Lily smiled softly, extremely pleased with the Russian's response, and Heidi's face cracked into a grin that was so pure she put newborns to shame.
Santino also agreed and shook his head and his hands at the same time.
"Jack Swagger is a cheap chump," he said dismissively, stuffing another huge bite of nacho into his mouth and wiping his lips on his crumpled napkin.
Heidi breathed a sigh of relief and melted into her chair, feeling the weight of worry lift from her shoulders.
"But," Santino interjected. "You are too much a mystery. You've got to put up your face out there. Let the fans know who this Hellcat person is so they don't believe in everything they read in papers."
Lily looked up thoughtfully at the notion, and pointed to Santino with a bright face.
"You're right!" she exclaimed. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before... Santino, that's brilliant!" she praised.
Santino puffed up his chest and rubbed his nails on his black silk shirtfront, clearly inflated by the compliment.
Heidi looked confused and wiped some sour cream from the side of her mouth.
"What do you mean? Like an interview or something?"
Lily and Santino both nodded while Heidi and Kozlov focused on the nachos.
"Yes! We can schedule an interview with one of the magazines, or at least one of the other local papers until you..."
"But first we got to get you familiar with the peoples!" Santino interrupted in his excitement. "Make the fans love you. Your first match was trying something funny business – not so good for the crowd. You don't even have entrance musics or photos!" He explained, gesturing to Kozlov who nodded his head as he chewed, the crunch of chips the only noise he made.
Santino leaned back in his chair and assumed a poised look, as if he were giving very sage advice to a needy soul. With his arm around the back of Heidi's chair, he patted her back and hoped his learned advice would come in handy.
"After that, people get to know you, they bring their signs that say 'Hellcat, Hellcat!' and next thing you know – BAM! You got good interview and you can say 'shut up your face!' to peoples who don't like it!"
Kozlov nodded minutely and finished the plate between him and Santino, who was now picking from the nachos that Lily had abandoned to Heidi.
"Good plan," the Russian added.
Lily was busily flipping through her little black book, scribbling notes and checking phone numbers while Santino started the next game. The time passed much the way it had during the first game, with Kozlov and Lily sitting quietly to attend to their own business while Santino and Heidi treated the place like a playground. A waitress even asked them to tone it down after she caught Santino chasing Heidi around the ball return with his arms outstretched to get Heidi back for throwing a nacho at his head.
Lily sat and watched when she wasn't getting strikes, grinning and laughing as Santino and Heidi continued to play with each other like old friends. This was the spirit that Lily had hoped to save from the depths of depression, and she was glad to see that her friend was just as resilient as ever. She herself was still piecing together how she felt about her personal encounter with Husky and wanted to be able to talk to her friend about what had happened without risk of getting her head chewed off.
Four games of bowling later and the two teams were simply exhausted. Lily had never felt like more of a babysitter when she noticed the way Heidi and Santino seemed to have worn themselves out like children at play. Instead of trying to shove him off of the bench, Heidi was instead leaning against his arm with a tired look on her face while Santino leaned his head on hers, the both of them thoroughly tuckered.
Lily came back after returning the shoes and grabbed her purse, looking much more herself now that her cherry-red pumps were back in place.
Kozlov was standing stiffly next to the ball racks with his arms by his sides. Even though Lily stood on the second stair from the bottom, he still stood a hair taller than she did.
"What do you think, time to take the kids home?" she asked with a smile that he returned slightly.
"Da. He is cranky ven tired."
Lily laughed outright.
"Yeah, mine too," she said, stepping down to the level and crossing to the bench where the two were slumped against one another like kids in the backseat on a long road trip. She put her hand on Heidi's head and patted the thick braid on top of it to keep Heidi from slipping too far into sleep.
"C'mon kiddo, lets go back to the room," she said as Heidi and Santino both looked up suddenly with bleary eyes; two kids that had just been woken from naps to the promise of dessert with dinner.
"Who? What?" Santino asked as he looked around and oriented himself again. Seeing Kozlov, he remembered where he was and stood up, just as Heidi did. The two of them put on their shoes and then stood before one another.
"Its good to finally a-meet you, Hellcat," he said.
Heidi smiled.
"Thanks for the pin-ball," she replied with a wink. After a moment of smiles, Santino held his arms open for a hug, which Heidi was quick to deliver. She squeezed him tighter than he had expected and the air rushed from his lungs and forced his eyes to bug until she finally let him go.
"Oh ho ho, you a strong one, Hellcat. I'll be seeing you in the arena," he said with a wink. As he passed Lily, he took her hand and kissed the back of it for longer than was necessary. "And I'll be hearing your melo-deeeeeus voice from the ring," he said with his typical Italian dramatic flare.
Then he stood by Kozlov and waved emphatically, as if he were saying goodbye to family members embarking on the Titanic.
"Arrivederci!" He called, and then he and Kozlov both turned around and started to exit.
Lily and Heidi walked somewhat slower than the energetic Santino, who seemed to have taken a great deal of energy from the little rest he'd gotten on the bench, for he was talking animatedly with his hands as he walked in front of the impassive Vladimir Kozlov.
Lily looked over to Heidi as they strolled amicably out of the Luck Strike Lanes and into the setting desert sun of Phoenix.
"So are you ok?" she asked, finally comfortable with the progress Heidi had made to start asking her about the important things.
Heidi nodded, finally feeling herself again. The pang of losing Husky all over again was still a fresh wound but she had finally stopped licking it and was beginning to leave it alone so that it could heal.
"Yeah," she said with a deep and relaxing inhale. "I am."
